


you can break everything into chemicals (but you cant explain a love like ours)

by sevendreamies



Category: NCT (Band), SM Rookies
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Fashion & Models, Angst, CEO Mark Lee, Drama, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 07:44:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14397477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevendreamies/pseuds/sevendreamies
Summary: Lee Donghyuck, better known as Haechan, the uprising model of South Korea. Lee Minhyung, better known as Mark Lee, the true definition of young elite of Seoul. Two different people, from two different world.They clash. Of course.





	you can break everything into chemicals (but you cant explain a love like ours)

“Lee Haechan, look over here please!” There is another call from the reporters on the right side, Haechan moves his body gracefully so he is now facing them. Flashing his trademark smile, the cameras all go off to capture the moment. Hundreds of flashlights used to blind him in the past, but that was when he was still a kid. It has become something that he has to deal everyday. 

Being a model means that you’re going to be showered with flashlights everyday, it’s like how singers with their mics and actors with their script. Probably not the best analogy, but you catch his drift. 

And not to mention that you’re one of the son of infuential figure in the country. The cameras already are on him even before he was born. 

Donghyuck poses some more, now holding his bag on his front, displaying the big label of the brand that invited him for their show tonight. After a few more shots, he bows and walks away from the red carpet into the venue. 

The venue inside is already crowded, he has a bit of trouble to get to his seat on the front row. Thank God, Renjun --his manager-- is right by his side immediately to show him the way. A tap on his shoulder greets him as soon as he gets to his seat and he turns around to see a familiar face that he hasn’t seen for a long time. 

“Jaemin!” 

“Nice to meet you again, Lee Donghyuck.”

\---

A figure comes out of the restaurant with a smile, followed by another two that are looking way older than the first guy. They’re chatting on the front porch of the restaurant, one of the old man patting the youngest one on his back. The youngest laughs at whatever the oldies tell him, before bowing a few times. Not long after, a sleek black sedan approaches them and a chaffeur comes down to open the back door.

The two old man bids their goodbye before entering the car, leaving the youngest between them all still standing on the front of the restaurant. After the car left and can’t be seen again does finally the man can let his shoulder down for a while, the smile on his face quickly changed into a tired frown. He opens the front button of his suit jacket before pulling out his phone. 

_“Yes, Mr. Lee?”_

“Pick me up on the lobby right now.” 

_“Yes, sir.”_

He fiddles with his phone for a while, checking the notifications because he really couldn’t check his phone during the bussiness dinner just now. He skips on the notifications from his father, asking him how the dinner went. He checks on his other chatting apps and just finds his friends telling him that they’re on some kind of after-party fashion event if he wants to join them after the bussiness dinner. 

The night becomes deeper as his own sleek black sedan is approaching. He sighs in contentment when his back finally meeting the soft cushion of the car. 

“Where to, sir?” 

“Let’s just go home for tonight. I’m drained.” 

“All right, sir.” The chaffeur steps on the gas slowly, bringing the car to the busy streets of Seoul. “I’ll wake you up when we arrive, Sir.” 

Mark lets out a laugh, his tiredness must be so obvious, huh? “Thank you, Jinyoung.” 

_Just another usual day for Mark Lee_ , he says to himself before letting his eyes closed.

_\---_

The room is dark, the curtains are not opened yet despite the clock beside the bed shows that it’s already way past the usual waking-up time during the weekdays. The figure on the bed still hasn’t move an inch from where he’s sleeping, blankets drawn up to bury his figure. 

The phone placed near his head is buzzing for the hundredth time that morning, but none of that is acknowledged by the sleeping boy despite him already aware of it since one hour ago. It’s turning into a war about which one will give up first, the other person on the other side of the phone is clearly not giving up anytime soon. 

For a few minutes, the buzzing is stopped and the boy lets out a breath of relief. He just about to drift back to the dreamland when someone snatches his blanket away, exposing him to the low temperature of his own room. 

“HEY!” 

“Don’t you hey me.” The voice gets Donghyuck to open his eyes and he is met with Renjun, face red in anger. Donghyuck yawns, it’s not like he’s scared with Renjun. He has known the other for long enough to not be warned by this. Donghyuck makes a grabby hands at Renjun, asking his blanket back. 

“No, you’re going to wake up right now and prepare yourself for the lunch meeting.” 

“Lunch meeting? From which brand? Can you change it to a dinner meeting or something? ” Donghyuck rolls around on his bed, his head pounding intensively at the movement. He must be shit faced drunk last night, he doesn’t remember anything after his third bottle of soju with Jaemin last night during their catch up moment. Thank God they drank at his apartment so he didn’t have to worry about being stranded on the streets and getting kidnapped by some kind of human-meat-eating creature. 

Damn, he’s been watching too many Hannibal shows it’s getting unhealthy. 

“It’s too early to function, damn it.”

“Clearly not for your dad and his _old_ friend.” Renjun scoffs, hands already pulling Donghyuck’s legs to the edge of the bed. The mention of his dad flicks off a light inside Donghyuck’s brain, “Dad? What does my father has to do with this?”

“It is the lunch meeting with your dad, don’t you remember?” 

_Lunch meeting? With dad?_ He doesn’t remember any promises with his dad, nonetheless a lunch meeting. They barely speak after Donghyuck told him that he doesn’t want to follow his father’s steps being the CEO of their family’s corporate group and instead choosing to walk down the path he has chosen, which is modelling. 

His dad said that he’s fine with it and supporting whatever Donghyuck chose, but Donghyuck knows better from the decreased frequency of phone calls and how his father rarely calls to accompany him to bussiness event again after that. 

“I said that last week, Donghyuck.” Renjun shouts from his walk-in-closet, digging into his clothes to find something appropriate to wear. Donghyuck finally brings himself away from the bed and comes to Renjun, shooing the other away from his closet. If he has to dress up then he has to be the one who chooses it. “After that Supreme event, i think?”

“I don’t remember a thing.” Donghyuck shakes his head, he was probably too busy thinking how to get his hands on the newest Supreme x Rimowa suitcase rather than hearing what Renjun said at that moment. 

“Whatever, just--” Renjun pinches on the bridge of his nose before sighing, “Just get ready. The lunch meeting is in an hour and I’ll drive you there.” 

“Okay,” Donghyuck still doesn’t have a clue about what kind of meeting this lunch is going to be, but he’s not one to refuse good food. “Where are we eating today? I need to make sure the dress code is appropriate.” 

“Tavolo 24.” 

“Hmmm, good choice, coming from Dad. I miss their poached eggs.” 

“Poached eggs are not for lunch.” 

“Whatever.” Donghyuck rolls his eyes, “Now shoo, I’m going to take a shower first. Ah, and Renjun? Would you please grab me some aspirin? I need to be on my full focus if i have to deal with dad.”

\---

Another meeting done and finally Mark can breath properly. He gets out of his suit jacket and put it on the sofa, before throwing his own self on the plush cushion. At least all the meeting went well that day, and he finally managed to convince the other company to join them for a project. His father has been pestering him about that for the past few weeks and he is glad he doesn’t dissapoint this dad with this comeout.

He is about to drift on to dreamland for a quick power nap when the door to his office opens, the familiar figure of his personal assistant comes into view. Mark only gives his personal assistant _slash_ self-proclaimed best friend of his an acknowledging nod. “Do I have another schedule for today, Jeno?” 

One ipad in hand, Jeno scans for something across the screen before looking up again. “Not that is related to the office, I guess that’s the last meeting for today. This week, maybe.” 

“Thank--”

“But,” 

Mark raises his eyebrows, “What?” 

“Your father just contacted me while you were in the meeting that he wants to you come for a friendly lunch meeting with his old friend and his family.” 

“Lunch meeting? With who?” 

Jeno shrugs, “He didn’t say any names, only place and time.” 

“Why so sudden?” 

“He said it’s actually scheduled since last week but he forgot to tell you, he wanted to tell you directly but the time just never came.” He looks at his watch, “And.. it is around 30 minutes from now.” 

“Okay then, let’s go now.” Mark stands up and grabs for his suit jacket, “We don’t want to be late for our guest, do we?” 

To be honest, Mark would rather coming back home right now so he can catch some sleep and just order take out for lunch. But it’s his dad and when he even took time for scheduling a lunch appointment in the middle of weekday, then maybe it is something important. Mark is not dense, even though this person they’re meeting is probably really Mark’s dad’s friend, there must be some kind of bussiness going on. It’s just something unevitable in the world they are living right now. 

Mark’s stomach grumbles with excitement at the thought of food, so he thinks, what can go wrong in a bussiness lunch meeting? He’s been through it many times he has perfected the skill to know what the right thing to say and what not. 

It’ll be just like another lunch meeting, won’t it?

\---

Mark wants to take back his words from before. This is _really_ wrong.

“Wait-- wait,” Mark unconciously says, cutting whatever his dad are trying to say, earning a dissaproving looks from him. Mark bows down to his dad while whispering apologies, his father’s friend sitting across the table only smiles understadably at Mark’s reaction (his son is not doing any better too though). “Would you please, repeat the thing you said before? About this whole arrangement?”

[back to one hour before]

When Donghyuck arrives at the Tavolo 24, the restaurant where the lunch meeting is held, the restaurant is not really crowded. Donghyuck is silently grateful, the less the attention the better. He already feels some eyes on him since he walked in, being someone in the entertaiment industry has it’s own downside, including dealing with people even when he doesn’t want to. People just come to him by themselves.

Donghyuck hides his face behind the sunglasses he wears as he is lead by one of the servers to the private room. The view of Gyeongbukgung Palace through the floor to ceilings glass windows, one of the reason he always love to drop by at this place. His father is already there, with his friend sitting across each other. 

“Good afternoon, Dad. And Mr..” 

The two man immediately stands up when they notice Donghyuck, his father’s friend offers his hand to shake, “I’m Mr. Lee Minho, your father’s friend.” Donghyuck bows and flashes the smile he always has for publicity, the kind that charms everyone in an instant, “I’m Lee Donghyuck, or you probably know me better as Haechan.” 

“Haechan, the model. Of course, who doesn’t know you these days.” Both of them laugh. “My son is supposed to be here too to talk about the arrangement but I guess he’s still stuck in the traffic. He’ll be here soon.”  
“Ah, yes, Mr. Lee. It’s okay, we can wait for him.” Donghyuck answers calmly but the alarm inside his head is ringing loud. He takes a glance at his dad, who magically feels it and looks at him at the same time. _Arrangement?_ he mouths, his dad doesn’t answer but his eyes tell him that he will know about it sooner or later so it’s no use to talk about it now. 

Minutes has passed with Donghyuck flipping through the menu book while his dad and his friend are talking, something about university days or something. After decided what he’s going to order, he flips open his phone to scroll through some notifications. Renjun has sent a message about how the lunch goes, but it has been only a few minutes so Donghyuck decides to reply later. Jaemin also sent a message, asking whether he wants to hang out again that weekend. That sounds good, he’ll think about that. 

Just when he is in the middle of updating the third photo to upload to instagram, he feels a presence right beside him. And before he turns around, the person is already sitting in front of him. Mr. Lee turns to him, “Donghyuck, it’s my son, Lee Minhyung.” 

Donghyuck accepts the hand that this Lee Minhyung offers, “But you can call me Mark. I’m not too familiar with my korean name.”

Mr. Lee smiles, patting his son on his back, a sight that Donghyuck finds that he envies. His father is the kind that rarely shows his affection at the first place. And after their dispute by the beginning of this year about Donghyuck’s career choice, the relationship between them is already borderline dysfunctional. “Hey, Mark. I’m Lee Donghyuck. But you might know me as Haechan.” 

“Haechan, the model. Of course, who doesn’t know you these days.” Donghyuck only gives him a smile. Definitely father and son, their reaction is also the same. 

Donghyuck’s eyes turns to scan the other from head to toe, _not bad_ , he thinks. Clearly well groomed and also well treated (of course, duh). His hair is cut short, colored beautifully in black. He has baby face, in Donghyuck’s opinion. But his jaw clearly gives that little twist that this baby face is not as ‘baby’ as what people might think. Dressed in a nice Calvin Klein pressed black suit, the shiny watch which Donghyuck can only guess as Rolex peeking under his arm sleeve, Mark Lee is indeed the definition of young elites of Seoul. 

They proceed to order their lunch, and the four of them talk briefly while waiting for the food to come. They talk about the stock market (with every little knowledge that Donghyuck knows about it from the CEO training he got years ago), about the current issues of the world, about the hottest trend in the fashion world (it’s kinda cute to see Mark being all confused about it, even though it’s expected), all in all Mark is a good conversation partner. 

He is in for an afternoon with good food and perhaps a new friend? Donghyuck is not regretting coming here. 

He almost forgets about the whole arrangement situation until they are done eating and both of Mr. Lee turns to face him and Mark. 

“This.. There is something that we want to talk about to you two.” Mr. Lee, Donghyuck’s father, starts. “We are arranging a marriage, between the two of you.” 

Silence. 

“What?” Both of Donghyuck and Mark say in unison. Donghyuck silently pats himself for the decision to stop eating the dessert, because if not, he will probably on his way to the hospital right now because he gets choked over a piece of tempered white chocolate. 

“It’s something about our promises to each other back in the days.” Mark’s father joins in, “We promise each other that we will get our child married to each other. And that’s why we are planning a marriage for the two of you.” 

“My answer is no,” is an immediate answer that comes from Donghyuck. His dad must be losing his mind right now. All thoughts are rushing into Donghyuck’s mind and all he can think is that this is what his dad is going to do to crush his modelling career. Donghyuck can be called famous, but he himself is stil buidling his career as it is his second year debuting as a model. Getting married this fast, moreover an arranged marriage, just spells d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r waiting to happen. It never means good. It never ends good. Donghyuck scoffs, he should’ve known this will come sooner or later. 

“Donghyuck..” 

“I’m calling Renjun, I’m out.” Donghyuck grabs for his phone, but before he can stand up, his father holds out his arm to prevent him from standing. He looks at Donghyuck with stern eyes and it brings Donghyuck to those days before Donghyuck finally decided to move out of the house and lives by his own. 

“Wait-- wait,” Mark unconciously says, cutting whatever his dad are trying to say, this time earning a dissaproving looks from him. Mark bows down to his dad while whispering apologies, Donghyuck’s father sitting across the table only smiles understadably at Mark’s reaction (Donghyuck is not doing any better though). “Would you please, repeat the thing you said before? About this whole arrangement?” 

“Let me repeat this once again,” Donghyuck’s father takes a deep breath, “We have a promise from back in the day that we will get our child married to each other.” 

Donghyuck rolls his eyes, not buying it. 

“And also both of our companies will soon merge--” 

HA! Something finally clicks in Donghyuck’s brain. He doesn’t have to hear the rest of the sentence to know that in the end, it all comes down to bussiness, bussiness, bussiness. What can be another thing inside of his dad’s mind other than money, money and money?

His eyes flicker to Mark, not surprised that Mark is already starring at him back. While that can be some romantic shit someone can find in the dashboard of their tumblr, the gaze that Mark supports is way far from the word ‘romantic’. Is that _dislike_ that he senses from him? 

Well, Donghyuck is not that lucky to get a new friends today. 

He challenges Mark’s eyes, _Do you think I want this too?_

“The wedding will be planned during the summer of this year, followed by the party of the merge of our company. You two can choose about the venue, and basically everything about the wedding.” 

Mark suddenly stands up from his seat, expression stiff and his gazes are fixed on Donghyuck. “I want to talk with you, just both of us, outside.”


End file.
